CSM Service to the Scrum Team Practice Question
During a Sprint, a developer approaches the Scrum Master complaining that a senior engineer constantly overrides technical decisions during daily synchronization. How should the Scrum Master address this conflict?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often suggest the Scrum Master should mediate the conflict or make the technical decision themselves, rather than coaching the team to build their own decision-making norms.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a direct conversation between the developer and senior engineer, coaching them to establish team norms for collaborative decision-making.
The Scrum Master facilitates an environment of psychological safety and collaboration. By coaching the team on self-organization, the Scrum Master empowers members to resolve technical disagreements directly rather than acting as a proxy. This builds team maturity, aligns with servant leadership principles, and fosters collective ownership over architecture and implementation details without creating dependency on the Scrum Master.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reassign the senior engineer to a different team to immediately eliminate interpersonal friction and restore harmonious workflow.
Why it's wrong here
Reassignment is a drastic and reactive measure that avoids root-cause conflict resolution. It strips the team of the opportunity to develop crucial self-management skills and damages overall organizational trust by punishing senior technical leadership prematurely.
- ✓
Facilitate a direct conversation between the developer and senior engineer, coaching them to establish team norms for collaborative decision-making.
Why this is correct
Facilitating a direct conversation lets both parties surface the disagreement and agree team norms for technical decisions, addressing the root cause rather than imposing a ruling. Coaching preserves the developer's voice while channelling the senior engineer's experience constructively.
- ✗
Escalate the behavior to the engineering manager to enforce disciplinary action against the senior engineer.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating to the engineering manager outsources a team-internal conflict the Scrum Master should coach the team to resolve, and disciplinary action addresses behaviour rather than the underlying technical-decision process. It is tempting because persistent overriding feels like a management issue, and escalation would be right for harassment, policy breaches or conduct outside the team's authority.
- ✗
Dictate a strict voting process for all technical disagreements to ensure every developer has an equal voice.
Why it's wrong here
Dictating a voting process imposes a mechanical rule that removes the team's ownership of how it self-organises and settles technical disagreement. It is tempting because it appears to guarantee equal voice and stop one person dominating, and formal decision rules would be appropriate where a team has explicitly agreed to adopt them, not imposed by the Scrum Master.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
One of 312 original CSM practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Scrum Alliance exam blueprint
This CSM practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scrum Alliance certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CSM exam.